Nuclear submarine decommissioning proceeds in Russian Arctic

SevRAO, a branch of Russia waste management organisation RosRAO (part of state nuclear corporation Rosatom) will complete the programme for decommissioning and disposal of nuclear submarines of the Northern Fleet in 2019 by dealing with the reactor compartment from the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine, Dmitry Gulak, chief engineer of the North-Western Centre for Radioactive Waste Management at RosRAO said on 16 October.

The three-compartment unit of the Kursk nuclear submarine is the last three units of reactor compartments still afloat in Kola Bay, he said. “We have a three-compartment unit from the Kursk nuclear submarine afloat after lifting it from a depth of 72 metres. The submarine itself was dismantled at one of the defence plants, and the three-compartment unit was delivered to us for temporary storage” he noted.

Rosatom said last year that it would provide long-term storage of 39 reactor compartments from nuclear submarines by 2019. The work, during 2017 and 2018 will cost RUB 4.2bn ($64m) according to Rosatom’s public procurement website. In 2017-2018 15 reactor compartments will be placed in long-term storage at Sayda-Guba of the Murmansk region in the Arctic costing RUB1.9bn, and 24 reactor compartments will be placed in the Oyster long-term storage in the far east Primorsky Territory, costing RUB2.3bn.

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